Member postings for Henry Brown

Wow, for that sort of money you could make one and have some change!

I was thinking of cannibalising my modified E3Pro to make a larger cube type printer to get away from the moving bed to be able to print faster but just don't have the space to accommodate it in a suitable enclosure at present.

There are lots of designs out there to get ideas from, it would be fun to do the designing and machining of the metalwork.

Looks like a great machine if you just want to plug and play though...

I hope Ian doesn't mind be mention this - I have an Eastwood Plasma that was used once to cut a car in half!

If anyone is interested please message me and I'll forward the details...

The swan neck doesn't look very long on the one pictured by scaling it against the plug.

Personally I'm not keen on magnetic tooling on the mill, it attracts too much swarf!

Since commenting earlier I have found that the buckets with lids on that fat balls, for the birds, com in make great storage containers, depending on the spool size you can get at least two if not three in them. I also keep mine in their original bags wit a silica gel sachet in for good measure.

Mmmm, we used to scarf O rings at 45 degrees to make a greater surface area for the adhesive. I don't remember using superglue though. I worked for Dowty at the time, if I remember correctly their O ring catalogue showed that method, maybe they had a special adhesive. I think they were only used for development purposes, a proper O ring would be made for the final production parts.

I'm with HowardT on this one, I remember we had modules for the first year and then a yearly day book for the next four years to record what we'd achieved, we just had to work to engineering drawings.

That was when we spent the first 12 months in the Apprentice Training Section learning pretty much every general engineering discipline, during that time we spent the a week here and there in specialist areas such as the gear and white metal shops and inspection and then chose a discipline to follow.

A first class apprenticeship which has stood me well through my working life and still does.

Good luck with the search, I still have my general training modules along with my indentures somewhere but no specialised modules I'm afraid.

Great idea, I made some QCTP holders and some tote boxes to go with them when I first started printing, the holders were from Thingiverse and I knocked the totes up on F360. I had a little set of draws I keep my smaller taps and dies in already so printed some ID plates to go on the front.

Not as posh as yours Derek! I sometimes have left/right confusion, when I first put the DRO on my mill I did this and its still there!

Edited By Henry Brown on 28/01/2022 15:40:17

There's a chap on facebook in Coventry called Dave Adkins who sells used tools etc. he usually has lots of that sort of stuff. I've had a 3MT chuck and various bits and bobs from him and he's usually pretty reasonable price wise.

Interesting topic, thank you to Gray62 for his factual input.

We have had solar panels for about 5 years now and they are close to paying for themselves. They came with a small display that has a "free power" light so we tend to use electricity when what is on, it came as part of the installation.

We have always been very conscious of not wasting energy as we have no mains gas here and use LPG for haot water and background heating to support a log burner. I was chatting to our plumber about the possibility of going for a ground source system when he came to service our LPG boiler last month and he felt that there would be no advantage for us, mainly due to the fact that the warmest water it would provide would be around 50 degrees, the top up to the 63 degrees the boiler is set at would have to be made by using an electric heater. So, despite the claims that method isn't viable in a well insulated mid 1960's bungalow.

Our electricity supplier only checks our meter once a year for both usage and generation, I have chosen to submit my usage monthly and the generation quarterly, I can't really see any advantage to us having a smart meter. We were asked if we'd like one but have declined. Our electricity dealer is Green Energy (UK) plc.

We don't have terrestrial broadband so I'm guessing we won't get one...

I made a small surface plate, approx 6" x 4", as an apprentice and often use it still when I don't want to clear the bits and bobs of my 24" x 18" plate, I'd suggest getting a chunk of CI around the smaller size. I'd suggest stress relieving what ever it is you decide to use.

Another thumbs up for Inverter Supermarket, brilliant technical help from their engineer if you ask and branded product.

There are loads of post on here if you search..

Thanks chaps, now I know

Just curious, what stops the chuck from rotating when milling/drilling other than putting it in a low gear which presumably still allows some movement due to backlash?

Colin, I've dropped you a line via the messenger on here with some photos and contact details if you want to folloe this up.

Cheers, Henry.

Colin, I just looked at your other post on the Chester stuff and noticed you are after a Plasma Cutter, I've got one for sale that I've never used. Bought second hand (it had been used once to cut a car in half) Its an Eastwood as the attached pictures. PM me if interested and I'll send some pix...

No problem Colin. Blimey that is a huge increase, I paid £3300 for my 3 phase machine including delivery for in January 2020. I don't know what the Chester machines are cost wise.

I decided to go with the Warco having read the feedback on here, Chester V Warco. As it turns out there was a problem with the top slide leadscrew, the flanks were quite rough and wore the brass nut very quickly, it was replaced immediately, no questions asked, I also had the microswitches actuated by the star/stop levers fail, again new ones were with me the next day. This sounds bad but it seems the norm with this Chinese stuff, we have to do the fault finding!

Anyway, good luck what ever you go for, and if you want to pop down just shout.

Aye, I know the feeling since having Covid at the beginning of November my brain isn't what it was, long Covid apparently, and I know just what you mean. I usually use F360 on a 17" laptop on my lap so not much space for another screen, hence thinking about a reference book.

Hello Colin, welcome to the forum...

I'm also based in Worcestershire, Near Pershore, I bought a Warco GH1332 just over a year age and I'm generally very pleased with it. Not sure where you are but if you'd like to come and have a look at it your welcome, I'm probably a bit closer than Surrey, just drop me a line...

Cheers, Henry.